Education politics and policy in the Volunteer State

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TEA President on Testing and Education Reform

Blake Farmer of WPLN in Nashville has an interview with TEA President Gera Summerford that hits topics including an over-reliance on standardized testing, using value-added data to evaluate teachers, and charter schools.

In the interview, Summerford suggests a move toward common assessments, developed by teachers, to supplement or replace standardized testing.

She notes that the current model of teacher evaluation is not complete, and that multiple measures of effectiveness should included. And Summerford notes that there are serious concerns about the validity of value-added data and it’s significance in the current teacher evaluation scheme.

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4 thoughts on “TEA President on Testing and Education Reform”

I am fighting to protect all children. Do you honestly believe the CCSS are good for our children? I see the harmful effects right in front of me each day as I enter the school building. I see it in the faces of young children who are being forced to do things they are not developmentally ready to do. Out of the 135 writers of these standards, none were experts in early childhood development or early childhood education. These standards are about profits not children. I implore you to reverse your decision to support these harmful standards and join the fight to protect our children.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24019-one-size-does-not-fit-all-fighting-common-core-curriculum

That is incorrect. Just looked over the first two sections on the list (I only googled two people). Found Marilyn Jager Adams, who focuses all her research on k-3 reading. She wrote the book, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. It was published in 1990 and is still being used today to teach literacy. Found another person, the dean of the Michigan School of Education who spent time teaching in elementary school. You may have to do you own research and not rely on others.